Jasmine Blossom Séance
by ESP Witch
Summary: Isshin doesn't raise a daughter the same way he would a son - leading to a moodier, less stoical daughter. One of the smaller changes in a manga-centric fic about a female Ichigo. Fem Ichigo. Canon Rewrite. IchiHitsu. Older Hitsu. A character study in just how much about Kurosaki Ichigo would have been different with a gender swap and a Shinigami Captain of slightly heightened age.
1. Goddess of Death

**Jasmine Blossom Séance**

 **Chapter One: Goddess of Death**

 _Because we are amorphous,_

 _We hold that in reverence._

* * *

 _Friday_

 _2:23 AM_

 _Karakura Town_

A black butterfly fluttered around the girl in the moonlight. She had shoulder length black hair, violet eyes, and she was small, slim, pale, and delicate. She wore black samurai's robes with a white sash, and carried a silvery katana sword at her hip.

She was looking at a map.

"It must be around here…" she murmured to herself. "I see… I feel strong spirit activity…"

She was suddenly revealed to be floating in midair, over the buildings of the small city, the telephone poles and wires, the lamp posts of a twenty-first century modern world. She leaped away through the air.

 _Thus the blade is swung down._

* * *

 _Friday_

 _7:13 PM_

 _Karakura Town_

A skateboarder was lying off to the side, unconscious with a bloody face and his skateboard overturned next to him, on the side of a city street. Four more skateboarders had surrounded a teenage girl in a circle on the main avenue of the street.

The girl was tall and slim. She had chin-length asymmetrical messy bed-head orange hair, her almond shaped eyes above high cheekbones were amber brown, and she bore long dangling slinks of dark metal earrings hanging from her ears. She wore a vivid colors and black lining kimono wrap top with black pants. She carried a book bag with her, a high school uniform tucked sticking out of the top inside of it.

Every expression she had was vivid, displayed clearly on her face. She was looking around with reserved cautiousness, but as she ran a hand through her hair she also carried a somewhat exasperated aura.

"High school girlie, I don't wanna hurt ya, but you got some nerve," the leader of the skateboarders said to the girl. The girl's eyes narrowed. "You appear suddenly, kick Yama-bro in the face, cold cock him, and then demand that we get the fuck outta here? What are you thinking? You wanna die? I don't think you do. Now be a nice girl, come over here and -"

 _Name: Airi_

 _Age: 15 years old_

 _Hair Color: Orange_

 _Eye Color: Brown_

 _Occupation: High school student_

 _Special Skill: …_

Airi moved forward in a flash, in a split second. Her face still reserved, her foot slammed into the lead skateboarder's face, and the skateboarder fell to the ground unconscious.

One of the remaining skateboarders gasped. "Toshi-bro's down!" another said disbelievingly.

"I'm not a nice girl," said Airi loudly and matter of factly to Toshi's unconscious form on the ground below her. "And don't call me high school girlie."

The remainders were getting nervous, even scared.

"D… don't know what's going on, but this is dangerous…" one of them swallowed. "We're just a bunch of skateboarders, man… I've never seen anyone cold cock someone just because they can…"

"She's one of them crazy bitches…" said another. "If we fight her, we'll be killed for sure…"

"Shut the fuck up over there!" Airi shouted, putting a foot on top of Toshi's unconscious head, suddenly angry and expressive. She pointed behind her. "I want all of you assholes to look at that!"

Beside a pole, an empty milk jug full of daisies had fallen over, little glass pieces broken off and the water draining around the petals in a puddle.

"Question one! What the hell could that be?!" The skateboarders looked nervous and dismayed as an infuriated Airi pointed at one. She had done a complete change of moods, now turning furious and sarcastic. "Okay, you over there, the smelly looking one!"

"Huh? M… me? Smelly looking?" The guy pointed at himself uncertainly. "U… Um… An offering for the kid who died here recently…" he admitted uneasily.

"Great answer!" Airi shouted sarcastically, suddenly lashing forward and kicking the guy down and unconscious in a karate move.

"Mit-bro!" one of them screamed, terrified out of his wits. The remaining two hurried over. "Mit-bro! You okay, Mit-bro?!"

"Question two!" And then Airi suddenly went serious, deadly quiet, changing again. "So if it's an offering for a murdered little kid, why is that vase of flowers… ruined?" she asked softly and threateningly.

Tampering with an offering to the dead - especially a dead, murdered child - was not only sacrilegious but disrespectful.

The two looked up, worried. They realized there _was_ a reason after all why this girl was randomly beating up a group of skateboarders - a very specific and important one.

"Th… that's…" one began.

"Cuz we knocked it over… skateboarding?" the second one finished.

"I see…" said Airi thoughtfully.

And then the remaining skateboarders' eyes widened in horror.

" _Then shouldn't you apologize to her?!"_ Airi demanded, screeching suddenly in a fit of wide-eyed, frightening temper, pointing behind her… and the ghost of a little girl had appeared floating behind her to the two skateboarders. She had a missing eye, and blood running down the side of her pigtailed face and her shirt dress.

 _Special Skill: Ability to see ghosts._

The two skateboarders screamed and ran away.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

"I'm sorry! I won't do it again! I'm sorryyy!"

They faded away into the distance.

Airi sighed slightly, miraculously becoming calm again. "Well, they seemed scared shitless, so they probably won't be coming around here again anytime soon," she commented. She turned to the little ghost girl, suddenly taking a big sisterly, almost motherly tone. Temperamental and changeful and openly emotional, Airi was also a natural big sister - she cared a lot. "Sorry about using you that way," she said to the floating dead girl. "You okay?" She frowned, looking intently into the girl's face.

Everything about Airi was naturally intense.

"I'm okay. I'm the one who asked you to chase them away, after all those days bothering my final resting place with their mess and their smoking and their noise, breaking my offerings. I had to cooperate at least this much," said the ghost girl matter of factly.

"Okay." Airi leaned back, satisfied. "Let me know if you need anything else. I'll bring fresh flowers soon." And she turned away with grace and ease to leave.

The previous warm, homey, breezy offering… so much like her clothes… had been hers.

"... Okay. Thanks, Miss." The little ghost girl smiled at Airi's back. "Now I can rest peacefully."

"You're welcome." Airi looked back over her shoulder, smiled warmly and cheerfully, and then gave a lazy wave as she walked away. "Try to focus on getting up to Heaven, will you?"

 _That's right. I'm a teenage girl who can see ghosts. My father is the local neighborhood doctor - he has a small clinic he works from at home. I grew up around that; sometimes me and my sisters even help him with simple nursing duties. We save some people's lives, we don't manage to save others. I don't know if that's why I have the ability… but for as long as I can remember, I've been able to see ghosts._

Airi walked up to her quiet, two-story city suburban home, past the clinic sign up in front of the lower story, and through the front door in the evening air, entering through into the family room and staircase to the upper floor behind the hospital.

"I'm home," she announced casually.

"Airi, you're late! Where were you?" Her father rushed over and looked closely, with childish earnestness, into her face, grabbing her shoulders. "Doing drugs?! Off with some boy?! Doing hazing rituals with girls?! _Is my precious teenage high school daughter drifting away from me?!"_

Airi's father had a black beard and was tall and broad-shouldered in a white doctor's coat. He wasn't mentally deficient, just weird, though sometimes that was hard to believe.

"Relax, Dad, I just got back from an exorcism séance," said Airi in exasperation, brushing past him into the kitchen. "Thanks for making dinner, Yuzu. I'll make it up to you tomorrow night. Karin gets the night after."

The three daughters took turns doing the motherly duties around the household.

Airi's younger sisters were two elementary school aged girls, already sitting at the table eating dinner. One had a pixie cut of brown hair, brown eyes, and soft features; the other had short black hair, black eyes, and sharp features.

"You're welcome!" said the brown-haired one, Yuzu, smiling cheerfully.

"Cooking duty again. Goodie," said the black-haired one Karin flatly, deadpan, taking some more food from her bowl with her chopsticks.

"Airi, I don't care what your excuse is!" her father said, pained, following after her. "Nothing can disrupt the peace and harmony in this house!

"Or what?" He pouted. "Are you rubbing it in my face with girlish vindictiveness that you can touch and talk to ghosts and I can't? Why can't I have the gift? _Why?!"_

"It's not like I asked to be born this way!" Airi yelped, changefully losing her temper. "And girlish vindictiveness?!" she added heatedly. "What does that mean?!"

"Sometimes girls can be very cruel," said her father stiffly.

"Oh - stop it, both of you," Yuzu scolded, motherly. "The food's getting cold -"

"Leave 'em alone, Yuzu," said Karin simply, glaring. "Another bowl." She held out her bowl for food with typical sullenness.

"The rules in this house are way too strict anyway!" Airi snapped. "Healthy teenage girls do not deserve curfews of seven o'clock -"

"Oh!" Yuzu brightened. "Airi, you already have a new person."

Airi whirled around to find the ghost of a middle-aged businessman with glasses floating behind her. Airi ducked reflexively. "Aah!" she shrieked. "This guy! When did he -?! I help another and another and each time I get rid of one another one comes! It's always like this!"

"You can see them, touch them, talk to them, plus you're an A class spirit medium. Your troubles are fourfold," said Karin casually from the table. "Must be tough having high specs, Airi. Really eats into your social life and study time."

"But you know… I'm a little envious of Airi," Yuzu admitted. "I can only see vague blurs. I'd love to be able to see a ghost clearly."

"Not me - I don't believe in ghosts or whatever." Karin took a calm sip from her bowl of food.

"Huh -? But you can see them, too, right?" said Yuzu, surprised. "The only one who can't see is Daddy."

" _Obviously,"_ said Karin flatly, "if you refuse to believe in them, it's like they don't exist."

Yuzu and the ghost both clearly found this very cold, and somewhat worthy of disbelief.

"Forget about that," said Karin. "Hey, I thought of a new project. Listen:

"Would you like to frolic with ghosts in the gentle breezes of early summer? Karuizawa Ghost Picnic." She held up a flyer she had made with a photograph of green Karuizawa Park overlaid with images of Halloweenish ghosts. "For the gullible," she explained.

"Last month it was cherry blossom viewing with ghosts," said Yuzu worriedly.

"Karin! Stop trying to make money off of my weirdass secret ability!" Airi demanded temperamentally. "On top of everything else, no one's supposed to know I have it!"

" _Time for a hug ~!"_ her father sang creepily, and suddenly engulfed her in a slow, enormous, suffocating hug from behind. _"I saw an opening for a father daughter hug ~!"_

Airi choked dramatically, reaching her arms out, suffocating and turning pale - then anger flashed across her face. She flipped her father over her shoulder from behind in a karate move and he landed flat on the floor.

Then she thundered upstairs to her bedroom. "Forget it! I'm going to bed!" She stormed away.

"Ah! Sister!" Yuzu called after her, distraught.

"Oh well, she's gone. It's your fault, Daddy," said Karin matter of factly.

"W… Why?!" said their father, looking injured and self conscious. He was genuinely doing the best he could in how he treated his daughter, but wasn't very good at interacting with the children he adored so much.

"Airi's had a hard time lately!" Yuzu snapped. "She feels trapped and frustrated, like she has no time for anything, because more ghosts have been coming to find her than ever before. And you _know_ that even though she cares and is very warm, her patience and temper have never been all that good in the first place. She's moody; she changes like the wind, and it's one of the things that people also like about her. But those moods can bother her, too."

"What?! She talks to you two about things like that?!" said their father, disbelieving. "After all that time I spend trying to connect with her?!"

"I'll take dinner up to her room later," said Yuzu absently, the natural exasperated, nagging mother figure.

"That girl… She doesn't tell me any of her troubles…" their Dad grumbled.

"Of course not," said Karin, coolly not even looking at her Dad. "You're better with daughters than you are with sons - I'd pity a son growing up with such a macho, competitive father like you, you'd only be able to communicate by sparring and he'd have to learn to be so tough and stoic and wantonly violent, much more than Airi - but you still have the communications skill of a ten year old child at 40."

She was flat, blunt, and to the point.

Their father reacted with shock - and then ran crying to a gigantic, blown-up memorial photo of his wife on one wall. She had long wavy brown curls and was very pretty, smiling beautifully in mid-laugh and surrounded by cherry blossom petals. Above the photograph were the words _Masaki Forever_.

"Mother…" he wailed. "Maybe it's because they've hit puberty, but all three of our daughters treat me so coldly… What should I do?" he asked earnestly, like his wife's memory had all the answers. And perhaps she would have. Perhaps Masaki had been the emotionally mature one.

"First start by taking down that ridiculous poster of Mom," Karin muttered, still not looking.

* * *

 _Really. For as long as I can remember, I've been able to see ghosts, just like I can see any other ordinary human being. No one else in my family can see as well I can. I got used to knowing all the answers when it came to death. We die, we either become ghosts or pass on, the ones who go to Heaven get reincarnated and the bad ones go to Hell._

 _I was used to having all the answers._

 _And so… I had never even thought about…_

Airi's bedroom door closed behind her, the pendant hanging on its outside jangling. It was a cutesy little printed out enamel engraving of a white jasmine blossom poking out of the top of a little green pear. (It was a play on her name, "Airi" meaning either "jasmine blossom" or "pear." Her sisters' names meant "pear blossom" - Karin - and "citrus spice" - Yuzu.)

"Jeez… why is everyone in our family so eccentric?" she complained, taking off her book bag inside her upstairs bedroom.

Suddenly, a black butterfly fluttered past her head in the bedroom and she paused curiously.

"A black swallowtail butterfly?" she wondered aloud. "Where did that come from -?" She was frowning, honestly bewildered.

Then her almond shaped amber brown eyes widened, in her high cheekbone face, framed by chin length asymmetrical messy bed-head orange hair and dangling metallic earrings. She put a hand reflexively in defensive surprise over her abdomen, the breezy, warm, and colorful black-framed kimono wrap top…

As the black-haired girl in robes from the beginning floated solemnly right through her bedroom wall.

 _And so… I had never even thought about… The existence of something like a Shinigami._

Shinigami - mythical Japanese spirits that guided souls on to the afterlife.

"... Wha…" Airi stared at the girl, stunned. The girl looked seriously straight ahead instead of at her.

She landed slowly on the floor from where she'd been floating in the air. "It is near…!" she said darkly and dramatically to herself -

Right before Airi stepped around her, bent down from her great slim height, leaned right down into the girl's face and shouted, "WHAT'S NEAR?!"

The black robed girl nearly had a heart attack.

And then Airi started ranting.

"You're a pretty confident burglar, if a stupid one! By 'it is near' do you mean the safe?! Is that what's near?!"

"Y… You can see and hear me…?" The girl stared wide-eyed at Airi. Then, morbidly fascinated: "Can you… touch me?"

Just as no one was supposed to be able to touch a ghost, no one was supposed to be able to touch this girl either.

"Can I touch you?" said Airi, bewildered. "Of course." She reached out and flicked the girl in the forehead. The girl gave her a flat, deadpan glare, shoulders slumping, and Airi smirked. "So, what… am I not supposed to be able to see and hear you?"

Suddenly, Dad thundered through the door and into the room. "Airi! Stop doing dirty things up here!"

"I'm not doing anything dirty; I'm subduing intruders!" Airi snapped, immediately losing her temper. "Look at this!" She pointed furiously at the Shinigami girl. "What the hell is wrong with the security system in this house?!"

"Hm?" But Dad was puzzled. "What do you mean, look? Look where?" He blinked, nonplussed.

"... Huh?" said Airi after a pause, open-mouthed and still pointing disbelievingly at the girl, now equally confused. "I'm talking about the chick in the samurai costume…"

"It is useless," said the girl calmly. She had recovered her composure and now looked serious once again. "It is not possible for ordinary humans to see me."

Airi turned around and stared at her next words.

"I am - a Shinigami."

Shinigami - a spirit who guided souls on to Heaven and the afterlife. Literally translated as God - or in this case Goddess - of Death.

* * *

In a splash of blood, the monster threw the pigtailed ghost girl's spiritual corpse away on the ground.

"Closer…" it growled. "... The strong soul… is closer…"

* * *

Back at Airi's home, downstairs their father had gone wailing to Yuzu. "Airi threw me out of her room. Daddy's upset!"

"There, there." Yuzu patted his arm, concerned, strangely the more mature one.

"You probably deserved it," said Karin observantly from the table, less fazed, but yet again she had a good point. "Most likely you burst into her room unannounced and said something dumb after she'd announced that she wanted to be alone - and while she was ranting to herself in her bedroom.

"I don't know what else you expected."

* * *

Upstairs, Airi was talking to the Shinigami girl in her bedroom.

"... I see. So you're a Shinigami, guiding souls on to the afterlife and then eventually through into reincarnation…"

She was sitting at a little kneeling table set up across from the Shinigami. Her eyebrows had risen almost into her hairline; her voice when she spoke was slow, flat, and disbelieving.

"And you came from the afterlife, which is actually a place called Soul Society, to exterminate a type of evil spirit that preys on the souls of the living and dead…

"Okay. I believe you.

"NOT!" she exploded, standing, eyes widening frighteningly and expressively. A vicious kind of sarcasm had overtaken her face.

The Shinigami girl made a sound of surprise and alarm, standing as well. "You… you can see ghosts but you do not believe in the existence of Shinigami?!" she said in disbelief. "Don't those two things usually go together anyway in your Japanese culture?!"

"Yeah, well, unfortunately, in all my years of seeing the dead I've never seen a Shinigami before," said Airi skeptically. "And I don't believe in things I've never seen."

She grabbed the Shinigami girl by the shoulders and steered her toward the nearest wall out of the bedroom, symbolically trying to push this new idea with effort out of her life.

"Dad couldn't see you, so I'll acknowledge that you're not a living human," Airi admitted. "But you're probably just a really vivid ghost. Quit the Shinigami crap. Got that, ya teenage midget?"

The Shinigami girl's temper had sparked - apparently at being called young and short. "You mouthy little -" she hissed, and then whirled around, throwing out two fingers. "First restraint! Obstruction!"

Airi's arms and legs sprang together, paralyzed. She was alarmed and surprised as she fell over flat on the floor. "You… what'd you do…?!" she forced out, perhaps trying to hide her fear with anger and heated temper.

The Shinigami girl snickered and smirked, putting her sandaled foot atop Airi's body. "You cannot move! This is called kido, demon form, and it is an advanced type of incantation spell only a Shinigami can use. Other than our swords, it is our main form of attack."

She took out her sword, still smirking.

"Even though I look like this, I have been alive almost ten times longer than you have. I have powers you cannot even comprehend. And you dare to call me teenage midget?"

Airi's eyes widened. "Ten times?!" she yelped disbelievingly.

The Shinigami girl sighed. "Let me explain," she said, in an irritated, long-suffering sort of tone. "Most adult or even preteen or teenage spirits in Soul Society are the age of people who would at least be aging in human terms, if not dead. The second life usually lasts much longer than the first. On top of this, spirits are the same physical age for decades, only to go through sudden spurts of alarming growth. Some even regress back the other way. Aging is tied to desires, spiritual growth, emotional change, and point in life. So you could theoretically meet a spirit physically younger than you and in age old enough to be your grandfather. And next month they could be your physical age. Or they could age with you, if they emotionally chose to. But even meeting someone supposedly both physically and in age older than you would be vague and up in the air as to what it actually meant. It is… difficult to figure out how 'old' a spirit is. Especially since most of the commoners in Soul Society do not bother keeping track of their actual birthdays.

"Soul Society judges people emotionally and spiritually - not in terms of physical age.

"To give you an example, one of the highest Shinigami ranks is Captain. Our youngest Captain is Hitsugaya Toshiro - a teenager and a prodigy, cold, serious, and intelligent. That is as specific as anyone can get. He is a teenager, like us, in physical terms, and is about a hundred and fifty in specific age like I am. This means he has aged normally - ten years with him for every one of yours.

"This is as simple as spirit aging ever gets.

"Since he is so young but is becoming an adult Captain, my own division's Captain Ukitake, a friend, gave him my job for personal experience doing mission reports surveillance. This means that the active Karakura Town sector patrolling Shinigami has to write regular reports and letters to Captain Hitsugaya using our virtual technology, when usually the reports would have been to Captain Ukitake instead.

"The Shinigami forces fraternization laws make just about as much sense, in that they are openly nonexistent. They are flouted frequently.

"I never said we make sense. Just that we are very good at what we do," the Shinigami girl finished with dignity.

"So… if this is a delusion, it's a pretty complex one…" said Airi skeptically. "This Soul Society… what's it like? You said you have virtual technology, but you use swords and spells and you dress like that?"

"Soul Society is a blend of the ancient and ultra modern," said Rukia simply. "Feudal Japanese and modern global living world, all rolled into one, different elements of each age living together in harmony and unison." She lifted her chin with dignity, as if proud of her world. "Souls spend their second life there, lose their memories, and are reincarnated.

"We also of course protect all souls from evil spirits, fighting the evil spirits off with what you so scathingly called our spells and our swords, which is my mission now.

"Usually for your insolence, I would kill people like you," the girl continued, smirking, her sword still unsheathed, "but spiritual law states that no Shinigami can kill a human they have not been specifically ordered to kill. I will have to be content with just sealing your movements into typical human helplessness, thus making you smaller than me. Give thanks, teenage midget."

Airi glared in helpless fury, face twisted into a silent snarl, as her own words were thrown right back at her.

"And…" the Shinigami girl continued, and lifted her sword. Airi's eyes widened in genuine fear as she became convinced she was somehow about to be executed anyway -

But this was not at all what happened.

The sheath of the girl's sword went in the forehead of the ghost of the businessman suddenly beside Airi. Airi watched in shock and wide-eyed alarm as the ghost's face paled and became stunned.

"N… no… I… don't want to go to Hell yet…!" the businessman begged, tears filling his eyes.

"Do not fear," said the Shinigami girl quietly, serious. She did not smile, but did not seem cruel either. "The place you are headed to is not Hell. It is the Soul Society. Unlike Hell, it is a peaceful place." Practiced, calming words.

She lifted the sword back, revealing the RELEASE character stamped on his forehead in Japanese. The old man dissolved and disappeared in a flood of light. Seconds later, a black swallowtail butterfly in his place fluttered away and out of sight through the ceiling.

"... Wh… what happened to that ghost…?" Airi managed uncertainly, unusually hushed.

"I sent him to the Soul Society. It is called Konso, or soul burial," said the Shinigami. "In your language I believe you call it 'going to heaven' or 'passing on.' As I said, it is one of a Shinigami's duties. In addition to fighting off and destroying the evil spirits, going on guard shift missions all over both realms, we also regulate the flow of ordinary souls in the universe.

"I supposed I shouldn't have to ask whether or not you finally believe me," she mused out loud to Airi, who had gone silent and wary and obviously _did_ believe her. "I will kindly explain things a bit more shortly and simply," Shinigami girl added scathingly, reaching into a robe pocket, "so that even a human brat like you can understand the important basics. Shut up and listen.

"In this world, there are two types of spirits," she began seriously.

She then proceeded to explain quite solemnly with horrible, childish drawings of cute little bunny characters. She seemed to love bunnies and terrible drawing about as much as she hated being dismissed as tiny and young.

"One type of spirit is called Plus and it is the most normal spirit. You can say that the 'ghosts' you usually see are these.

"The other spirit type is called Hollows. Hollows attack living and dead beings alike and eat their souls. A Hollow is what you as a human would call 'an evil spirit.'

"Hollows attack Pluses. Shinigami defend Pluses.

"Do you have any questions so far?" she asked matter of factly, kneeling with her absurd diagrams before Airi's prone, entrapped form.

"Umm." _Should I tell her how badly her drawings suck?_ "No. You know what. No. No questions," said Airi, exasperated.

"Very well then," said the Shinigami girl, though she looked somewhat suspicious. "We Shinigami have two main duties.

"One duty is to guide dead Pluses who have been left behind on to the Soul Society using Konso or Soul Burial, as you have seen. Those not left behind pass on naturally. Reincarnation from Soul Society happens upon second death on its own - though as I said, usually much more slowly than the first death, in our modern feudalistic-Japan blend world.

"And the second duty we have is to destroy Hollows - using either what you called 'spells' which we call kido or, much more normally, using 'swords.' My current mission is this."

At this Airi paused. "Wait a minute. If you came here on that kind of a guard patrol mission, does that mean one of those Hollow monsters is around here right now?"

"That would be the case," said the Shinigami, nonplussed.

"Then what the hell's the matter with you?!" Airi exploded in exasperation. "Why aren't you off killing it?! What are you doing sitting here talking to me?!"

"Well… the thing is…" The Shinigami looked away, her expression tight and uneasy. "I do not know why, but I cannot feel its presence anymore… I came in here looking for it."

"Wh… What the hell does that mean…?" Airi began, frowning in worry. And then she froze, her eyes widening, as _she_ heard it. A kind of howling roar that made her face pale, her eyes wide, that shook her to her core.

"It is as if a great power is hindering my senses…" said the Shinigami to herself, finger to her lips, puzzled. "Like something is blocking me…"

"Hey! Hey, Shinigami!" Airi called, angry and defensive because she was afraid and alarmed.

"What?" The Shinigami turned to stare at her.

"What do you mean what?! Didn't you hear that high-pitched shrieking just now?!" Airi demanded. "What exactly was that?!"

The Shinigami stood there in what was to her a dead silent room.

"... High-pitched shrieking?" The Shinigami paused, growing more serious. "When did you hear -?"

And then she paled, her eyes widening, as she heard the howl as well - as if from very nearby.

 _I heard it!_ She whirled around toward the sound. _That was… undoubtedly the howl of a Hollow!_

 _But it still sounds like an invisible filter is out there… What is it I'm sensing?! But even more than that -_

The Shinigami turned slowly, in a kind of horrified wonder, to Airi, who was still entrapped watching her expectantly.

 _This girl - she heard the voice of the Hollow before I, a Shinigami, did?!_

The moment broke and the Shinigami whirled around at a crash and a scream from downstairs.

"That's Yuzu's voice…!" Airi called desperately, pained. The Shinigami made to run through the bedroom doorway. _"Please!_ Wait, you have to untie me! Was that a Hollow?!"

"Yes, it is attacking your house!" the Shinigami barked, pausing in the doorway. "I will go and get rid of it! You stay here!"

Disbelieving fury crossed Airi's face, lifting it into a snarl. "You expect me to just lie here while my family's being attacked?!" she demanded indignantly. "I CAN'T DO THAT!"

"Even if you came, there would be nothing you could do!" the Shinigami shouted back. "The number of victims would just rise by one! Leave it to me and stay here quietly! Got it?!"

She grabbed her sword, ran through the bedroom doorway - and was blown away, pausing, by the sheer force of spiritual presence coming from downstairs. _Such spiritual force! How could I not have noticed it until now?_

 _What is happening to me?!_

"Ai… Airi… You okay?"

The Shinigami looked down the hall and her eyes widened. Airi froze completely, eyes widening, at the weak voice.

"Karin!" she said hoarsely, horrified, as a blood-covered Karin appeared crawling with effort into her doorway.

"Good… It hasn't come this way…" she whispered with a weary smile. "It happened so suddenly… Blood started pouring from Daddy's back and he fell over, his eyes still wide… Yuzu and I were attacked by something huge while we were still frozen in shock… And I thought, I had to… warn you…"

Airi just lay there, stunned, her eyes wide and torn.

"I don't know what it was…" Karin continued. "I think it was a spirit… I could only see it a little…" She seemed oblivious to the Shinigami beside her. "I don't think Daddy and Yuzu could see it at all… So it got them… Airi… Before it sees you… Hurry…

" _Run_."

Airi's entire face contracted, frozen in shock and something else, something growingly angrier, as Karin's eyes slid shut and she slumped.

The Shinigami leaned down and felt her neck. "... She is unconscious, but she is alive. Her soul is still here -" The Shinigami looked around and her eyes widened.

Airi had half stood, struggling. She was trying to break the kido spell.

"Stop it! What are you doing?!" the Shinigami barked, horrified. "Stop it! You cannot release kido with a human's power! If you force it, your soul will -"

But Airi never found out what would have happened to her soul if she'd failed, and quite frankly she didn't seem to care. The Shinigami broke off, stunned. Airi's face twisted into a snarl, her eyes crazed by love and protective fear and anger, she screamed and screamed - and with a snap of power, she was free.

Not even hesitating, she grabbed a baseball bat from beside her bedroom door and ran past the stunned Shinigami, down the stairs and out of sight before the Shinigami could even break out of her shock.

 _How…?_ the Shinigami thought. _To release demon form with human power…? I have never heard of such a ridiculously impossible thing!_

"Wait!" she called belatedly, but Airi was long gone.

She stared after the human girl.

 _What_ _ **is**_ _she…?_

* * *

Airi sprinted down the staircase and appeared in the family room, earrings swinging with movement, eyes looking around sharply and warily. A massive hole had been made through the far wall to the outside night beyond, presumably by the Hollow.

 _Yuzu! Dad!_ were her only thoughts. Two words - her whole new focus.

The kitchen was ruined and broken, the table smashed in half. Blood was smeared everywhere, splattered on the walls. Dad lay, his back an open gushing wound, unmoving.

Airi realized frantically, staring around, that she couldn't find Yuzu. She looked around reflexively to the hole outside - and she paused, her eyes widening.

Because for the first time, she saw the Hollow.

It was a great, hulking monster. It was white and grey, humanoid but with a great spiky spine, covered in black markings. Its face was a white and black mask face with leering skull teeth and dark, gaping holes for eyes, a tiny light of sentience in each eye.

Her eyes met the eyes of the Hollow, and Airi froze in predator-prey reflex as the eerie, smiling, staring Hollow turned slowly to look at her.

 _Th… This is… a Hollow…!_ she realized in primal, instinctive, frozen human fear, eyes huge, face white. _She said "evil spirit" so I thought it would like an evil human… This is a monster…!_

Airi realized she was trembling, and she gritted her teeth, glaring through her fear, clutching at herself to try to stop the shaking. For Airi, a monster was somehow more frightening.

 _Damnit…! Why am I shaking? I'm not scared! I'm not scared of that_ _ **thing**_ _! I've seen countless ghosts, in all sorts of states! That's just another one!_

Then her eyes widened again, horror taking over her face. Because she'd just seen Yuzu's doll-like form, in the grasp of one massive, humanoid Hollow hand. Yuzu looked near unconscious… defeated.

" _Yuzu!"_ Airi screamed desperately.

Yuzu looked over and saw her big sister, face bloody and eyes tearful. "... Airi…!" she whispered.

And just like that, Airi's fear was gone. She had found for the first time an alternative to fear - typical for emotional Airi, it was irrational, protective, horrific fury. The mother-sister instinct.

Screaming, face twisted, she raised the baseball bat like a weapon and sprinted instinctively towards the Hollow to attack it.

The Hollow made to lash out at Airi, who just managed to raise the bat in wide-eyed alarm in time. Airi was shoved back by the bat, skidding on her butt, sitting up with effort in the aftermath of the attack and realizing in dread that the bat was broken. She looked up, and the Hollow was right above with an arm raised to attack her. Airi had just enough time to realize in fear that she was about to be eaten -

Before the Shinigami girl appeared, slicing at the Hollow's attacking arm calmly with her sword.

Airi's and the Shinigami's eyes met, Airi's in wonder and the Shinigami's in something that might have been hidden concern, as the Hollow screamed and dropped Yuzu, screeching and retreating.

"Yuzu!" Airi screamed, and she ran forward and caught her little sister in her arms, her eyes wide and distraught. "Yuzu! Are you okay?! Hey!" Airi shook her, but Yuzu wouldn't wake up.

"Do not lose focus, human girl!" the Shinigami girl called in warning, landing in a stance with her sword in front of them. "None of your family members have had their souls eaten!"

"None?" Airi asked, looking up.

"Not even your father lying over there on the floor has been killed and eaten!"

"Wa… wait a minute! Don't Hollows attack people to eat their souls?!" Airi demanded intensely, confused. "Then what did it attack my family for?!"

The Shinigami's back was to Airi as she answered.

"... Hollows wander searching for souls with high spiritual concentration… In that search, arbitrary humans are sometimes attacked."

"... What does that mean?" Airi asked slowly, looking up and frowning.

"I… have never seen nor heard of a human," the Shinigami admitted, "who can see Shinigami and defeat kido on their own… in other words, I have never seen nor heard of a human with such high spiritual concentration…"

She turned to Airi solemnly.

"... Most probably, its target… is you!"

Airi stared in silent horror.

The Hollow was beginning to recover. It readied itself for another assault, but neither character was paying attention to it anymore.

"... Wait a second…" And Airi gave a horrible, strangely bitter, hysterical smile. "... He came for me…? So does that mean this is my fault…? The reason my Dad's over there almost dead… The reason Karin and Yuzu are covered in blood… It's all my…"

Airi was staring blankly at the ground, her head bowed, that horrible broken smile still on her face. This hit her especially hard, harder than it would have some. Airi had a guilt complex when it came to her protective feelings, and it stemmed from a mysterious, unrevealed place.

The Shinigami turned back to Airi completely it what was now clearly concern. "Wait. I did not mean…" she began, the Hollow looming huge and unnoticed right up behind her.

And then the Hollow swatted her aside like a fly. She landed hard and fell unconscious.

"... Shinigami…!" said Airi in alarm, looking up and staring over at her, coming back to herself.

The Hollow now loomed above Airi - whose eyes narrowed, deadly. The Hollow roared, and Airi glared in genuine hate. There was not a trace of fear left now.

"... That's enough," said Airi quietly. "I'm finishing this now."

* * *

The Shinigami sat up and clutched her head, more irritated than anything by the blood and the pain. "To neglect defending my back before an enemy…" she hissed to herself. "I was careless… Such incompetence…"

Then she looked up, saw what was happening, and stopped completely. Her eyes widened and some incomprehensible horror came over her face - something beyond perhaps what her current situation warranted. She saw more there than most people would, and also with her this stemmed from a mysterious, unrevealed place.

Airi was standing in a stance, strong and steady, before the Hollow. It was right across from her. Her fists were clenched, shaking - and then despite it all she smirked.

"Hey… Hollow…" she said, sharply amused, calm. "You want my soul, right…?"

Even the Hollow had paused in silence.

"Then fight me face to face!" Her flinty brown eyes were hard, fiery, and she pointed at herself. "No one else has anything to do with this! Try killing me and taking my soul!"

"Fool!" the Shinigami hissed, moving to sprint forward, but she knew, had to know, that this wasn't quite the truth. She knew the human girl didn't stand a chance against the Hollow.

But here was the thing: the human girl knew it, too.

She was sacrificing herself. She couldn't fight - so she was letting herself be eaten instead.

The Hollow flew forward, mouth open to eat her. Airi winced and tensed herself in wide-eyed preparation. The Hollow was about to make impact with Airi's body -

And then the Shinigami ran in between them and took Airi's attack for herself, her arms spread wide in instinctive defense.

The Hollow spat her back out and retreated. She fell limply, bloody, to the ground, sword loose in her hand. Airi had screamed out, but it took her a full second of processing to make an actual, coherent word.

" _Shinigami!"_

"You… idiot…" the Shinigami panted from the ground, a pool of blood forming around her. "I already told you that your power is no match for it…! Or did you think that everything would be over if you gave him your soul to eat…?" She looked up at Airi sharply. "Either way you are an idiot…!"

Airi glared. "You should have let it kill me!" she snapped. "It would have made things simpler!"

" _No, it wouldn't have!"_ Airi stared at the sudden scream from the Shinigami. _"It never makes things simpler! You think it does, but it doesn't!_

"You… you, who could be his twin… you are just like him..." said the Shinigami scathingly, and it was clear she was becoming increasingly delirious, losing her head.

She could not sit up. She rolled over onto her back instead, her face looking towards the sky.

"Now all of us can only wait…" she said hoarsely and distantly, "... until we become its food…"

Airi clutched at her head, near tears. _It's my fault…!_ she thought, the same thought she'd had before ironically. Still with the guilt complex. _Everyone will die because of me...!_

The Shinigami watched her sympathetically, panting.

"... Do you want to save your family…?" she asked softly.

Airi looked up. "Is there a way?!" she said quickly. "A way to help them, and you?! Tell me!"

Finally, the Shinigami forced herself to sit up and grab her sword, gritting her teeth against the pain and leaning back against a nearby street pole. "There is a way… No, to be exact… I should say there is _only one way_ …"

She held up her sword seriously to Airi.

"You… become a Shinigami!"

Airi looked afraid - an interesting reaction - afraid, and surprised. "Wha… what are you saying… how can I…"

"You can! Pierce the middle of your chest with this zanpakuto, or spirit killing sword… and I will insert half of my Shinigami power into you! That way, you will attain the powers of a Shinigami temporarily… and will be able to fight the Hollow on equal terms!"

"Is it really possible… to do something like that…?" Airi asked slowly and uncertainly.

"... I do not know. Of course this is a plan set up anticipating your high spiritual pressure… The percentage of success is not high… If it fails, you die…!

"However, there is no other way!" Her eyes and voice were made of iron. "No time to deliberate."

Airi hesitated. And then she heard Yuzu's voice.

Yuzu was murmuring in her sleep, distraught. "... Airi… Where are you…? Airi…"

Airi looked over, her eyes tender. "... Yuzu…" she said quietly, soft and open. "Are you having a scary dream…?"

"Don't come… It's dangerous… Hurry and get away…" Yuzu murmured to Airi in her dream, tears in her eyes clenched closed. "Airi…"

This hit Airi to her core.

 _Why are all of them… worrying about me when they're about to die…?! It makes me who's being scared for myself… look terrible!_

And Airi took a deep, bracing, determined breath.

"Give me the sword, Shinigami!" She reached out. "Let's give your idea a try!"

The Shinigami smiled up at Airi. "It is not 'Shinigami'," she said warmly. "It is Kuchiki Rukia."

"... I see. I'm Kurosaki Airi," said Airi, smiling back, friendly and open. "Let's pray this doesn't become the last greeting… for either of us."

The Hollow had recovered, howled, and charged.

"The Hollow's coming… if we don't hurry…"

Rukia lifted the sword. Airi hesitated for a split second - and then grasped its blade firmly, her hands near Rukia's on the handle. Rukia pointed the sword at her chest, and it was clear both were nervous.

"... Let's do it," said Airi first, serious.

"... Yes," said Rukia at last.

And Airi's face contracted in wide-eyed pain as the Hollow charged and the zanpakuto was pierced through her chest -

And in an explosion of light and power, the Hollow paused as one of its arms fell off - sliced off at the shoulder joint by an invisible blur of speed.

The light faded and Airi was standing behind the Hollow, frowning seriously, in full black and white samurai robe Shinigami regalia. Her long metallic earrings still swung and chimed in her ears. A long sword, as long as her body, was lifted across her back behind her. Her eyes were deadly.

The arm fell beside her.

Rukia knelt, staring uncertainly, clutching at herself bleeding in a white underrobe. "How did she… it was only supposed to be half… but all my powers were taken…" Rukia said to herself softly, worried as she looked at Airi that far distance away.

 _Furthermore, this feeling… that time… "I cannot feel its presence anymore"... "It sounds like an invisible filter is out there"... How could I not have noticed it until now?! "It as if a great power is hindering my senses."_

 _That was her!_

 _That room was filled with the spiritual force pouring out of her… Her force had completely confused my senses…!_

Airi and the Hollow were charging at each other, Airi's massive sword raised.

 _I have never seen a human that could see Shinigami! I have never seen a human defeat kido! I have never seen the beginning zanpakuto, which changes form in response to the Shinigami's individual spirit power… become so large!_

Airi raised her sword and sliced off one of the Hollow's legs. It screamed out in pain and fell toward her howling. Airi raised her sword, determined.

"Realize the mistakes of messing with my family, fish-face!" she called intensely, dramatically.

She sliced through the Hollow's head and down through its body. In a burst of light straight through its middle, the Hollow disappeared.

Rukia stared. _This girl, who exactly… is she…?_

Airi's sword hit the ground, her blow finished and the Hollow disappeared. Her face was deadly serious.

 _Name: Kurosaki Airi_

 _Age: 15 years old_

 _Hair Color: Orange_

 _Eye Color: Brown_

 _Occupation: High school student... & Shinigami_

And then Airi passed out onto her face, her soul falling unconscious softly and limply after finishing its blow. Rukia ran up beside her and knelt down to her level… but she paused.

Hearing a footstep from a set of traditional geta clogs coming from right behind her.

* * *

Author's Note: On the age change. Read this rant or ignore it if you want.

It always weirds me out when people complain about age differences in a pairing in anime and manga. Specifically in anime and manga. Here's why.

Most anime and manga revolve around coming of age stories. There are MAJOR exceptions to this rule, but for the most part, most main characters are young and coming of age in one way or another. The mangaka must realize that reading constantly about actual children or teenagers must get old.

Why? Because most anime and manga characters look and function almost nothing like teenagers.

In manga, most teenagers look and act like adults. Most kids look like teens and still act like adults. Even in anime and manga where this isn't the case, age is often hard to deduce altogether – twelve year olds look sixteen and sixteen year olds look ten.

Because manga is just about creating characters with a particular appearance. It doesn't seem to be about age.

If the mangaka hadn't written their age down on a piece of paper, I would have no idea what age any of these characters were.

I say all this because I find it problematic when people look at an anime and manga pairing with a huge age difference and call it "disgusting." In both appearance and in action, the pairing lover in question usually isn't pairing two characters who look and act like anything other than adults.

Actually, I can think of certain age-similar pairings in "age is hard to figure out" manga that weird me out way more than pairings in some other manga that have huge age differences. Some characters look so much like kids, even though they're close to adulthood and paired with age-similar people, that I have trouble imagining them with anyone.

But for the most part, it's like when a TV show casts a character who is supposed to be in high school and the actor is close to thirty. Adults don't have to feel bad finding that character attractive or interesting to other characters. It makes sense. Despite any numbers stated in text or on a piece of paper, the audience is not actually looking at a child.

Usually in any fandom fanfic I write, I follow age specifications anyway to avoid hordes of angry fans. But this has been a private beef of mine for a while.


	2. Starter

**Chapter Two: Starter**

The bloody corpses of Airi's dead family members were shuffling toward her like zombies. She stared in horror, frozen, still in her Shinigami uniform, as they came closer and closer, slowly overtaking her…

"What's going on… Airi…?"

"It hurts… Sister…"

"I thought you became a Shinigami… to protect us…!"

"Airi!"

" _Airi!"_

Their moans rang in her ears. Airi was clutching at herself, face working, tears in her eyes, genuinely terrified as she stared at them guiltily, their bloody faces slowly surrounding her…

Then Rukia suddenly appeared somehow, also standing there in her Shinigami uniform.

"I am sorry!" she said with brutal matter of factness. "You were too late!"

Angry and afraid and distraught, Airi lost her head and began shrieking at Rukia -

And that was when she felt a set of arms close around her and she jolted awake. The sensation pierced through her sleep-induced nightmare full of impossible protective feelings and unending guilt.

" _My beautiful daughter Airi is awake at last ~!"_

"... Dad," said Airi, deadpan, "I don't even want to know how long you've been standing there embracing me in my bed, but get the fuck away from me."

Her father retreated and Airi relaxed in relief, taking deep breaths. _I'm secretly grateful,_ she could admit to herself.

That was when she paused and leaped out of bed, full reality finally hitting her and breaking through her haze. She jumped in front of her Dad, eyes wide. "Oh yeah! How are your injuries? How are Karin and Yuzu?"

"Injuries?" Her father looked puzzled. "What are you talking about? When did we get hurt?"

"But you're… you're…" said Airi slowly, staring, and that was when she realized: "... You're not hurt."

Her next bewildered sentence: "Wait, _what?"_

* * *

The entire healed Kurosaki family was standing outside the house, staring at the boarded-up hole in the side of it. Airi stood in their midst looking bewildered.

"But it sure is a miracle!" said Dad brightly, hammer in hand. "A truck crashes into the side of our house and nobody even gets injured!"

"More miraculous: nobody even wakes up!" said Yuzu equally brightly, ladle in hand. "Oh! Sister! Breakfast is ready!"

"Yeah, right." Karin's arms were crossed and she looked away resolutely. "This ain't no miracle. The criminal got away and left us with the repair bills. This family…" she muttered to herself.

"Don't worry! He'll come back to apologize someday!" said Dad with childish earnestness and enthusiasm.

"No, he won't!" Karin snapped, angsty and sullen and all-teenager.

"If you don't eat soon, you'll be late," Yuzu reminded everyone naggingly.

Airi stared solemnly at the boarded-up hole. _What's going on…? Everyone's wounds have been healed… And they think the damage to the house was the result of a truck accident… Only I seem to remember the truth… Is this Shinigami-style damage control?_

 _Rukia… did she go back to the Soul Society?_ Airi pictured Rukia, all solemn and official in her Shinigami uniform. _She must have… She said I was only taking half her power. And anyway, since I'm a human now instead of a Shinigami… my temporary Shinigami powers must be gone._

 _They said it was a long-term patrol mission. But maybe something like what happened would freak any Society out._

* * *

 _Karakura High School_

 _10:43 AM_

A curvy girl with long caramel-colored hair yawned, sitting in a hallway near a window with a book and gazing up at the ceiling absently. It was morning break. She was pretty, with a round, cheerful face and childish star barrettes tying back her hair.

"Hey, your mouth is open! You're too young to be zoning out daydreaming!" a voice said suddenly.

The girl broke from her daydream, closed her mouth, and put her book up before her face reflexively - then she saw who it was. A tall, slim girl with a messy, blunt pixie cut of black hair was smiling warmly at her, hands on her hips. Beside her, looking warm and fondly exasperated and now in a high school uniform… was Airi.

"Look who I found," said the black-haired girl playfully.

"Tatsuki-chan! Airi-chan!" said the curvy, daydreaming girl delighted.

Airi smirked, shaking her head gently. "Hey, Orihime," she said, sounding amused. "Excited and cheerful as always."

Back at their desks at the classroom, they sat down around each other. "Why are you two so late?" Orihime asked, concerned.

"Oh. A huge truck crashed into the side of Airi's house last night," said Tatsuki. "I went to walk with her to school as usual, I got sight of the clinic, and bam - there was the hole. I don't know how everyone in the neighborhood, including my family, missed the sound of an accident that big."

" _Whaaat?!"_ Orihime wailed, wide-eyed with alarm.

"Yeah. And then when I ran over to ask her Dad if she was dead, all shouting and angry and stuff, all ready to be made the plot of some awful docu movie, do you know what the little asshole said? She creeped up right behind me and said, 'Sorry to disappoint you, but we all survived'." Tatsuki's eyebrows had risen in a _Really?_ sort of way.

Airi snickered. "Well ya gotta admit, if I'd died, it would have made an awesome story to tell for you at school."

"Not the point, Airi. Not even the point. Also morbid," said Tatsuki matter of factly.

"Airi-chan, you do _not_ get to complain about how clumsy and ditzy I am and how much you worry about me anymore!" Orihime said, pointing.

"Aww, really?" Airi scowled and slumped. "But that's one of my favorite activities!"

"No! You've been doing it since we became friends two years ago in eighth grade, and after this? Nuh-uh!" said Orihime, her childish star hair barrettes flashing with a particularly fervent head movement. "And you don't get to freak me out and joke about my apartment being haunted anymore, either! Who gave you the power to see ghosts, anyway? How would you know?!"

"Ugh, fine." Airi sat back. "I nearly die and I'm punished for eternity. I give this whole 24-hour period up as a bad job." Tatsuki chuckled despite herself. "Let's talk about Orihime's latest crush instead."

Tatsuki's head shot up.

"The gym locker assistant," Orihime admitted, ducking her head and blushing. "Don't tell anybody else. It's humiliating enough as it is."

"The guy Airi and I get our karate equipment from three days a week after school for karate club?!" Tatsuki shrieked.

"The guy we're always complaining with Asano Mizuho from kendo club about because he keeps calling her a dude?" said Airi, deadpan and exasperated.

Then, together: _"He's an asshole, too!"_

"I know! I know!" Orihime moaned, sighing and putting her burning-hot face against her desk.

"What is it with you and assholes, Orihime?" said Tatsuki intently, leaning forward and frowning in worry. "With boobs like yours, you could do _so_ much better than what you're reaching for."

"She's also, you know, a nice person?" said Airi dryly.

"Yeah. But we all know nobody gives a shit about that in high school. You suck 'em in with your boobs and then pounce," said Tatsuki, nonplussed.

"Wow. You're a poet," said Airi, straight-faced, and they all began giggling like mad. "Really, though," said Airi through her laughter, "at this point she's better off just pairing up with Chizuru. Chizuru -"

"Is a perv!" said Tatsuki indignantly.

"Well, she's _super_ forward, a lesbo, and into really kinky sex. But at least she worships Orihime like a princess and treats her nicely," said Airi, frowning matter of factly, arms crossed.

"... Damn, Orihime. _Your taste in guys is starting to make Honsho Chizuru look like a viable option, and you're not even gay._ Are you?" Tatsuki added hopefully. "Because you know, that would be super convenient -"

"I'm not gay!" said Orihime indignantly. "Stop talking about my nonexistent sex life in front of me!"

"Fine, then. Why do _you_ always go for assholes?" said Airi.

"In your own words," Tatsuki added, all business.

"I just think of that grimacing asshole face…" Orihime closed her eyes, smiled, and blushed. "And you know what the great thing is about dating a guy who looks like he has a stick stuck up his ass? You can imagine that face any which way you want to - clown makeup, afro, animal nose, terminator vision - and no matter how you imagine it…" Orihime snorted, opened her eyes, and began giggling hysterically, hands over her mouth and tears in her eyes. "It's hilarious!"

"Is… that the answer you were expecting?" Airi asked Tatsuki uncertainly, as if just to clarify.

"Not at all…" said Tatsuki, lost. "Two years of best friendship in, and she still baffles us…

"Anyway." She turned back to Airi. "You don't get off that easy. Weren't you helping out with repairs on your house today? I mean, the reason I'm so late is because I stuck around, but then you said you were ready and…"

"Eh." Airi shrugged philosophically. "My Dad's operating under the assumption that having a good education might be mildly important at some point in my life."

"Annoying."

"Totally annoying.

"Yup. Infuriating."

"This is 3rd period, right? Who's about to come in?" Airi asked neutrally, turning to the front and her desk.

"Social studies," said Orihime.

"Ochi-san, eh? Well, good, she won't ask many annoying questions about my absence," said Airi.

"You're… Airi-san?" said a female voice brightly from directly behind Airi. Airi turned around… and Rukia was standing there in a body in a high school uniform just like the rest of them. Everyone was looking at her. She smiled. "Nice to meet you!" she said to Airi.

Airi just stared, petrified.

"Who the hell are you?" Tatsuki asked bluntly.

"My name is Kuchiki Rukia!" said Rukia brightly with a big, fake smile. "I just transferred in today! It's an unusual time, but a family situation came up and we had to move suddenly. I don't have any textbooks yet, so I was told to sit next to and read from the textbooks of Kurosaki Airi - the one with the unusual orange hair.

"You don't mind me looking at your books, do you, Airi-san?" Rukia held out her hand.

Written on her palm were the words: _You say something, I kill you. Get it?_

Airi just… _stared_. In total disbelief. Rukia beamed brightly. "Okay?!"

And then she yelped as Airi stood up and dragged her unceremoniously out of the classroom, to the total confusion of everyone watching. Airi's first coherent thought:

 _What the hell is she thinking?!_

* * *

A few minutes later, Rukia was following Airi to an abandoned section of the high school campus.

"Where are we going?" she asked Airi, who was walking up in front. "Are we off to do naughty highschool girl things?!" she added eagerly. "I'm really interested in trying human culture!"

"Human… culture…? Stop being weird!" Airi barked over her shoulder.

"Weird?" Rukia pouted. "How rude, is it not good for someone who studied and learned everything basic from _the_ Shinigami's Guide to Humans textbook in a single day?"

Airi whirled around to Rukia. "Could you please just explain what's going on?" she said, throwing out her hands, frustrated.

"Explain?" said Rukia, surprised and maybe alarmed.

"Yeah! Isn't your job over?!" Airi demanded heatedly. "Why are you in my class? Didn't you have to go back to that Soul Society place?!"

"You fool. It was a long-term mission. And only Shinigami can return to Soul Society," said Rukia, her arms crossed defensively. "Right now, I am not able to return there."

"Huh? Why not?" said Airi slowly, big eyes puzzled.

"Because I lost my Shinigami powers!" said Rukia firmly.

"Wha…?!" Airi slowly began to look alarmed. She pulled at her own physical body, school uniform, clothes. "B… but I'm no longer a Shinigami! No kimono! Where did this 'Shinigami power' go?!"

"Inside of you," said Rukia, pointing. "It's not your body but your _soul_ that has become a Shinigami. I simply put your Shinigami soul back inside your human body."

Airi paused, disconcerted.

"Anyway! Last night I had almost all my powers taken by you!" said Rukia. "I have barely any abilities left… I'm even forced to be in this gigai, or artificial body!" She put a hand against her own chest.

"Artificial…?" Airi began, bewildered.

"It is an alternate body we Shinigami use in times of emergency," said Rukia. "A weakened Shinigami enters it to wait for his or her powers to recover."

"So this body is that? And it takes a human form?" Airi guessed.

"Yes. Weakened Shinigami are targets for Hollows. So we act like humans," said Rukia.

 _So that's why the others in my class could see her…_ Airi thought. She looked serious, but uneasy. "... So? What does a weakened Shinigami want with me?" she asked tentatively.

"That's it, the point!" Rukia held out a hand and beamed. "Until my powers return… you will take over my guard shift Shinigami duties on this long-term Karakura Town mission! You will also have to write the reports to the Captain," she added matter of factly. "They would sound more natural coming from you, the one actually doing the fighting. After today, after every Hollow is when your reports would start. And -"

Airi reacted rather… viscerally in indignant fury, face twisting, fists clenched. An oblivious Rukia was still talking.

"You're the one who has the Shinigami powers now, so it makes sense," said Rukia. "I will be there to assist you at all times, of course. Eventually my powers will return, yours will fade, it will be like nothing happened, and all will be well again! And you really have no right to refuse, since you were the one who -"

Airi put up her hands in a hex sign and glared. "I refuse!" she snapped heatedly.

Rukia paused, finger in the air and mouth open. "... What?" she finally said, beginning to get both nervous and angry.

"I said I refuse !" Airi waved a lazy, disgusted hand and walked away gracefully. "I don't want to fight anymore of those monsters. I turn down the job."

"W… wait…!" said Rukia disbelievingly, now definitely nervous. "But last night, you -!"

"Last night…" Airi paused, her back to Rukia. "... Last night I was only able to fight because my family was in danger." She turned around, uneasy but honest. "I'm not fighting monsters like that for total strangers!" she said bluntly. "I'm not that nice of a person.

"Sorry if I disappointed you…

"But look, you don't get it, you don't know who I _am_ ," said Airi with feel, waving a hand at her chest. "On a day to day basis, I mean. I know I'm letting you down, I'm aware… that this is a shitty way to react. I get that. But you have to understand this: _I am a disappointing and shitty person_."

"... Your guilt complex," Rukia realized, remembering last night.

"... Maybe?" Airi shrugged, convinced she was helpless.

"That belies… absolutely everything I know about you so far," said Rukia, her face veiled. "You realize that, right? Everything. What you're telling yourself belies… literally _everything_ I know about you."

"... Then maybe you don't know me very well. Because I'm not a hero. Never was cut out to be one. Sorry." And Airi turned back around to walk out of the courtyard.

"... I see…" said Rukia solemnly, her head lowered. She raised her head, deadly determined, and slipped on a fingerless glove with the Shinigami symbol on it - a Hollow skull mask surrounded by flames. "... Then I have no choice!"

Airi whirled around in surprise as Rukia ran at her. "What are you -?!" she began in alarm.

And then Rukia shoved the gloved hand at Airi's high school uniform laden chest and her soul, in full Shinigami regalia, was pushed outside her body.

Her physical body in school uniform fell forward and her soul body in Shinigami uniform fell backward, both in surprise.

"Wha - What the hell's going on?! My soul isn't in my body anymore?!" Airi stared at her soul hands from the ground, freaking out, possibly having a slight existential crisis. "Hey, body! Snap out of it!"

Airi's body didn't move. It didn't have her inside it - didn't have anyone inside it, in fact, though it was technically still alive.

"Hey." Airi looked up in surprise to find Rukia glaring down at her seriously. She apparently still had enough power to at least see and touch a Shinigami. "Follow me!" Rukia commanded, icy and hard to read.

* * *

Rukia as faux human and Airi as Shinigami were standing beside each other in front of a children's park somewhere in Karakura.

"... Well this is riveting," said Airi at last. They had apparently been waiting for a while. Both still stared at the park ahead.

"Wait. It will happen soon," Rukia said, her arms crossed.

"What will happen soon?!" Airi snapped, uneasy, finally looking over at her. "We've been waiting for twenty min -!"

"Does a spirit appear near this park?" Rukia asked emotionlessly, still looking forward.

"Ah - yeah, one does."

"What kind?"

"A 5 year old kid. He's small." Airi made a short gesture with her hand. "He usually plays here around noon."

"Your friend?" Rukia asked next.

"What?! I've seen him maybe three or four times. I've never even spoken to him… Why is that important…?!" she began, confused.

Rukia held out what looked like a cell phone. In the screen readout were a set of abbreviated numbers and words.

"What's this?" said Airi uneasily, taking the cell phone and staring down at it.

"An order from Soul Society," said Rukia calmly. "It means within fifteen minutes of noon, in a 20 meter vicinity of Yumizawa Children's Park… a Hollow will appear. Most likely," said Rukia casually, "it will attack the child."

Airi froze, staring down wide-eyed and blank-faced at the cell phone readout.

They looked around, Rukia for a second more cautious and assessing than she appeared, as a scream echoed out from the other side of the park. The little boy's ghost was being chased by a massive, spider-like Hollow. He was crying, his hand reached out to them.

Airi saw, her face contracted with horror, and she was at the fencing of the park with her hand on her sword before a single thought could go through her head. She tensed herself, face hard, preparing to fight -

"Wait!"

Airi turned back around to Rukia.

"You're going to help him?" Her arms crossed, her face solemn and expressionless. "Isn't he a stranger?"

"Wh… what are you talking about?!" Airi demanded, horrified. "How could I not help someone who's right in front of me…?"

"Whether it happens in front of you or far away," said Rukia seriously, "it doesn't change the fact that he's being attacked!"

Airi froze.

"Unless you commit to doing my job…" said Rukia meaningfully, "this is going to happen all the time. So what does it matter if it happens in front of you… or miles away?" she added, faux casual, shrugging. "The end result is the same. You're not helping people.

"Isn't that what you wanted? Funny. Your face doesn't look like it is."

The kid tripped and fell to the ground with a cry. Airi looked around instinctively in alarm -

"Don't help him!" Rukia shouted. "Even if you save that kid here, nothing will matter if you don't become a Shinigami! Saving him because he's right in front of you?! Don't be naive.

"A Shinigami has to treat all spirits equally! You cannot just conveniently save those you can see, those you can reach! Don't save anyone with such half-hearted spirit! If you want to save him now… accept that you must save all spirits!

"To go anywhere for them… to even be willing to give your life to save them, you have to make that kind of commitment!" she commanded, snarling. Rukia was hard and fierce - all about commitment.

 _Give your life_ , Airi thought, and she remembered Rukia throwing herself in front of the attack meant for Airi herself the night before.

She seemed to come to some sort of decision.

Just as the spider Hollow had loomed over the kid and was about to eat him, Rukia's eyes widened. Airi had just leaped into the park, stance at the ready.

"... Who are you…?" the spider Hollow asked Airi cautiously, pausing.

Then the Hollow screamed and flew away, skidding backward on the ground, as Airi slashed straight through one of its legs, slicing it off. Her face was twisted into a fierce snarl, her amber brown eyes burning. The kid looked up, tentatively hopeful on the ground through his tears, his spiritual life saved.

"... Airi… you've accepted…?" Rukia began in hopeful surprise.

"SHUT THE HELL UP!" And the kid gave a cry of alarm as Airi slammed her gigantic sword into the ground right beside the kid's head. Tact was not one of Airi's specialties. "I don't accept jack! I saved him because I wanted to save him!" Airi shouted temperamentally, pointing defiantly at Rukia. "Is that wrong?!

"Think about it. Is it true that _nothing_ would matter if I only managed to save a few lives as a Shinigami? If I only helped the people I wanted to?" Airi asked heatedly.

"Wha…?!" Rukia began indignantly.

"And are you any different?!" Airi demanded, pointing at her.

Rukia paused, her face veiled and surprised.

"You sacrificed yourself to save me last night! At that time were you thinking about really by-the-book, written-rote, page-pounding stuff like 'this is my Shinigami duty'?! No! I'm not going to ask you what you _were_ thinking, but I know it wasn't that! It was personal for you, because it's always personal! _Duty!_ That's not what fighting and sacrificing yourself is!

"No matter how many people we _choose_ to save, all human beings only save the people we want to.

"No one dies out of duty. People die out of choice."

The Hollow was charging up behind Airi.

"Or if I'm wrong and they don't, at the very least…" And she reached her sword back and stuck it straight through the Hollow's face, without so much as looking. "I will be different!" she said in a voice of iron.

She turned around and slashed right through the Hollow, felling it to the ground.

"... I haven't accepted any commitment…" said Airi, her back to Rukia. "If things get bad, I might just turn one day and run… Since I'm not a good enough person to want to sacrifice myself for total strangers… But…"

She turned back around to Rukia.

"Unfortunately," she said sarcastically, "I also have a debt to pay, and I'm still a good enough person that I give a shit about that!

"So here's my deal. I still maintain that I'm a horrible person who doesn't want to help anyone she doesn't know. I still maintain that only helping the people you want to is a perfectly fine way to behave. I still maintain that I don't actually want to save anybody.

"But I'll help you out because you saved my ass."

Airi marched over, frowned firmly, and stuck out her hand. "I'm going to help you!" she said. "To do this Shinigami job thing! Even though I don't want to!"

After a surprised pause… Rukia smiled understandingly.

"Yeah," she said simply, letting Airi save face and keep her past and her secrets, and she shook the hand. "Thanks for the help."

* * *

Meanwhile back at school, alarmed students and teacher were finding Airi "passed out and alone" in a courtyard on campus.

And Tatsuki and Orihime were sitting at their desks, staring at the classroom door in worry, halfway through math with textbooks in hand. "Is her disappearing like this going to become a regular thing?!" Tatsuki hissed to Orihime.

 _They had no idea._


	3. Late Night Messages

**Chapter Three: Late Night Messages**

Rukia had given Airi what she called "a spare copy" of the cell phone missions report system. This meant Airi was sitting on her bed that night, staring down at the cell phone in consternation… trying to figure out what the hell she was supposed to write to a Shinigami Captain from a feudalistic-modern realm full of spirits. A cold, serious, intelligent teenage prodigy.

Someone she had never met before.

"Here goes nothing," she whispered to herself, took a deep breath, and typed in the text space Rukia had told her to, "Sorry I haven't reported in. It's been… chaotic to say the least."

She clicked Send.

In another realm, Hitsugaya Toshiro received the message from late night at his desk. He paused - took Kuchiki Rukia's report phone out of an office desk and checked it, frowning.

He messaged back: "You'd better have a good reason not to have reported in for so long, Kuchiki, though I suppose it is diligent of you to text so late at night. Unless there's a problem?"

"No problem. You know, you should have a little concern for a subordinate's wellbeing. I could have been fending for my very life out here!" Airi added indignantly.

"That's your job."

Airi saw the message and made a face. "... So I have been brutally reminded recently. Thanks."

At last, Toshiro softened slightly, feeling a little guilty. "Clearly your reasons for not reporting in are… appropriate. Can you right now?"

Airi was picturing an asshole with a stick shoved up his butt. "Yeah, I can. I got to Karakura Town and began tracking down a Hollow… but I was blocked by this weird force, like something obstructing my senses. I tried to search out both the source of the spirit energy, and the Hollow, and it led me to a human's bedroom. She could see me - a little - I think she was the source of the block. Anyway, the Hollow attacked her family home and I was injured fending off the Hollow, defeating it, saving her family, doing memory wipes.

"That's why I hadn't reported in.

"Nothing eventful other than that. I'm healed now, starting my mission, and I sent on a little kid at a park today using Konso after saving him from a second Hollow - nothing to report there, just standard."

He pictured her kindly sending off a small boy - she seemed surprisingly emotional. "... Thank you. A human who can see a Shinigami. I have never heard of such an absurd thing."

Airi laughed uneasily from her bedroom, still messaging. "I know, right? It was strange.

"I liked helping the kid. It made me feel good." She wasn't sure why she admitted this to him.

Toshiro paused. _I… hadn't expected such vulnerability and gentleness from a Kuchiki, especially not from the sister to the clan head._ "Probably a positive sign," he finally wrote wryly.

Airi laughed from her bedroom. "Yeah, I guess it would be weirder if it hadn't made me feel good," she messaged back in amusement.

"Indeed."

"Why are you in the office so late?"

"That's… rather a personal question."

"Well sue me for being curious. For all I know, _you_ could be off fighting off something. You could be messaging me while a Hollow eats your spleen or something."

Despite himself, Toshiro snorted and smirked. "As interesting as that would be, I'm afraid I just work late. Message me at late hours if you need to. I'm usually at the office alone."

He paused, second guessing himself, frowning… then clicked Send.

"No one else works with you?"

"She's out getting drunk."

"Why aren't you? Asked out of concern. If it doesn't bother you, I won't ask again."

"I'm… used to it. For most of my life I've tended to make people uncomfortable. Too intelligent, not emotional or free enough. That's not the case with my Vice Captain, though," he added wryly. "She just enjoys spending her evenings getting wasted."

"Fair enough," Airi typed as she chuckled. "... I guess I can sort of relate. People vary between loving me and being terrified of me." _My weirdass hair and my weirder-ass demeanor take care of that,_ she thought.

"With your rank, I can… guess that."

Airi had almost forgotten she was pretending to be Rukia and she… didn't know that much about Rukia's family life.

"You learn to live with it."

"You do." _That's… a surprising connection,_ Toshiro realized to himself, not unpleasantly. _If perhaps one that shouldn't be surprising. The strictest Captain and a Kuchiki. Who'd have thought._ "It was… pleasant talking to you, Kuchiki. Please try to report in sooner next time."

"Got it! You'll hear from me every day!" she typed mischievously.

His eyes widened. _Wait -!_ But she'd already clicked offline. Toshiro scowled, annoyed - and then bit back the oddest smile.


End file.
